“In this book unfortunately, I cannot dwell on the wonderful things about America as the more pressing task of preventing them from being lost through subjugation and domination of the rest of the less fortunate peoples on the planet, is at hand. See the eloquent expression of what many immigrants fleeing from the tyrannies of their own constricting societies in the poorer nations have generally found in America, in the book “What's so Great About America” by the eloquent Indian immigrant, Dinesh D'souza. Little further needs to be added about that topic here.”

In that Preface, I had carefully explained why ordinary peoples from the developing nations generally come to America when they might even have been crying “death to America” in their own countries. I had also separated the “inside” vs. “outside” experiences of America, and explained this bipolar personality of the superpower in terms of the human conditions that accompanied each “state” wherein, most people enjoying the “inside” experiences remained ignorant of the “outside” experiences, but not vice versa. Indeed, it's a “land of opportunity” within its borders for many, especially for those who are able to unquestioningly play within its often un-stated “boundary-conditions” as good citizens of empire dutifully pursuing their “American Dreams”. But it's also a multifaceted hydra of oppression and neo-colonialism outside of its borders for the rest of humanity living in the natural resources laden developing nations. Such grotesque reality-spaces at the far frontiers and beyond, characteristically suffer from obfuscation and neglect in the domestic discourses of any predatory empire. For, it is indeed veritably true that “Hegemony is as old as mankind”, and the art of selective story-telling and spin doctoring by its masters of discourse is among its best practices of conquest:

'America appears quite different from the “inside”, than from the “outside”. Her behavior towards her own domestic population (before the emergence of the police state atmosphere), is different from her exploitative and plunderous behavior towards the denizens outside her shores, especially those in the third world where America creates mixed emotions: anger at her exploitation of them, and desire for the freedoms and promise of the “good life” that it offers those able to reach its shores. This has generally also been true in history: most empires have always remained tyrannical outside their outer frontiers where “barbarians” were known to reside, while freedoms, culture, and the “good life” flourished in their inner sanctums of power. High walls and military guards at the periphery would protect the dominions and harvest the “barbarians” of their wealth and resources because these were the “lesser” people, probably not even human beings. It was taken for granted that it was okay to rape, pillage, and plunder them to support the good life within the empire. And it appears that at the dawn of the twenty-first century, with the march of civilizations towards liberation, progress, sophistication, and a global “shrinking village”, the modern empires still do not seem to have evolved any sense of justice and fair play towards those at the perpetual outer periphery, the borders where empires, nations, and civilizations meet, necessitating even higher walls, more border patrols, and self-serving doctrines of “clash of civilizations”.' (Preface Prisoners of the Cave)

“Prisoners of the Cave” in 2003 was the counterpoint to the mindless drivel and artful propaganda that was being used to sell the imperial conquest of Iraq disguised as the “War on Terrorism”. Dinesh D'Souza's book was quite a part of this criminal selling job too. But Dinesh had also accurately captured the best practices of the “inside” experiences in America from a high-achieving immigrant's perspective, and nothing needed to be added to it. Such pronouncements for the “land of opportunity” are routinely beaten to death in the mainstream discourse anyway, as if all peoples on the planet did not already know it. Tell us something that people don't know.

Well, in 2008, on this auspicious occasion of the Fourth of July, much further still needs to be added to What's so right about America from an ordinary Muslim's perspective, one whose own civilizations at the far frontiers of empire have been bearing the brunt of “imperial mobilization”. Dinesh D'Souza's narrative of the “land of opportunity” still needs to be extended further in a bit deeper perspective for the benefit of all those who are now aptly captured in the title of this salutation on this 4th of July.

The rest of the American peoples who magically escape the description in this title – a tiny minority – my humble greeting to them was penned yesterday, challenging the best among them to rise to a new level of efficacy. One that is at least a bit greater than zero towards all their own tall claims and poetic words. The expectations are indeed astronomically high of these latter peoples. And they surely need no reminding of What's so right about America – for they know it well already, and because of which they dare to stick their neck out to safeguard it! They however, surprisingly, needed reminding of What's so very wrong with America due to which their efforts continue to remain on the treadmill. Their failure to even recognize that they fail, let alone that their effective impact in their own proclamations is zero, is unfortunately their biggest and most fatal failing. A bizarre reversal of perspectives from what one might expect.

So what's indeed so darn right about America that the flag waving “United We Stand” peoples don't seem to perceive despite their genuine love of their nation as they continue saluting her into the rubble of history? They see her economy going broke, her housing going under, her social services terminating, her civic infrastructure falling into dangerous disrepair harnessing only a “D” grade from her own civil engineers who now assert that they might further downgrade it to a “D-”, and her dead finally coming home to roost – all in the pursuit of a “war on terror” against the tortuous abstraction of “Islamism” that they little understand except for what is told them by their own masters of discourse?

Even if one takes all the “doctrinal motivation” at face value and a legitimate raison d'être for waging endless wars upon the entire solar system's “evil doers”:

Usama Bin Laden has escaped to Mars and was recently spotted militantly drinking up all the planet's new found water in the name of “radical Islam” called “Islamism”, and thus both must be stopped; we must “vanquish Islamism and help Muslims develop an alternative form of Islam.”,

what is that intangible quality of America which still brings many to its shores, that is surely being sacrificed at the altar of this epic battle between “good and evil”?

If these confessional words in this posting http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog/?p=115 are really the respected Congressman Ron Paul's: “I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America.”, then one would also have to rightfully ask WHAT has “expressed my grave concern” actually accomplished?

If I was a system designer and continually expressed only my "grave concern" for my company's lousy products, and furthermore, waxed platitudes on how wonderful other products are possible, and yet, never produced anything, never designed the system architecture, implementation plans, marketing plans, business plans, nor lined up the resources nor the organizational infrastructure to enable all such plans, if I didn't do any of that, merely waxed political poetry, I'd be without a job!

But a Congressional leader of 35 years, isn't bound by those rules and laws. Mere "expression" gets one a free pass, with a fawning crowd to boot. That's in fact, the job definition.

I am sorry - as one humbly belonging to the recipient civilization of the grand largess that the honorable Congressman now bemoans – America's frequent quest for its "liberty" makes little impact [except the loss of it for others].

Please do confirm this with the native American Indians, the 10 million or so who remained the recipient of the “truly great American Revolution started in 1776”, all the victims of the "White mans burden" of "imperial mobilization" from Wounded Knee to the inducement of "birth pangs [in] the new middle East" with each new "new pearl harbor" from the USS Maine through the Gulf of Tonkin to the USS 911. Some good have these lyrics done to the millions victims of Indochina still languishing in misery and quite forgotten – from Laos to Cambodia – and some good did that do to the victims in Afghanistan who were sold "God is on your side" to give "to the USSR its Vietnam War", and some good will that do to the new millions of victims in Mesopotamia, and god forbid, soon in Persia, and South Asia.

All the American "liberty" you can eat!

I am especially, and I say this quite humbly, vexed that this honorable Congressman stated in his Jan 15, 2007 speech to the House:

"As I said last week on the House floor, speculation in Washington focuses on when, not if, either Israel or the U.S. will bomb Iran-- possibly with nuclear weapons. The accusation sounds very familiar: namely, that Iran possesses weapons of mass destruction. Iran has never been found in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and our own Central Intelligence Agency says Iran is more than ten years away from producing any kind of nuclear weapon. Yet we are told we must act immediately while we still can! This all sounds very familiar, but many of my colleagues don’t seem to have learned much from the invasion of Iraq. "

"This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this?"

And in those intervening 18 months, all the honorable Congressman did was wax more lyrics, primarily as part of the campaign to get elected, or re-elected. More words stating what is already known – but not a whit of practicable solution space, not a whit of pragmatic prescription.

And his fawning followers lap it up. And that is quite understandable because of the enormous shortage of 'calling a spade a spade' among the ruling elite, anyone doing so becomes a great magnet for the handful of 'rabble rousers', youngsters, and idealists of various sorts.

This is the unfortunate reality of American politics, the American peoples, and American civilization – only 232 years old, and teaching everyone who have been around thousands of years, the definition of "liberty"! When they have no food to eat, no roof over their head, no clean drinking water, and are even slated for "population reduction" as the ruling elite's global policy prescription for the "White mans burden", America's renewed quest for 'Let’s make “Something Big is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we’re witnessing is a blessing in disguise' at the expense of the 'wretched of the earth', doesn't impress the latter!

The author, an ordinary researcher and writer on contemporary geopolitics, a minor justice activist, grew up in Pakistan, studied EECS at MIT, engineered for a while in high-tech Silicon Valley (patents here), and retired early to pursue other responsible interests. His maiden 2003 book was rejected by six publishers and can be read on the web at http://PrisonersoftheCave.org. He may be reached at http://Humanbeingsfirst.org. Verbatim reproduction license at http://www.humanbeingsfirst.org#Copyright.

Reprint License

All
material copyright (c) Project HumanbeingsfirstTM, with
full permission to copy, repost, and reprint, in its entirety,
unmodified and unedited, for any purpose, granted in perpetuity,
provided the source URL sentence and this copyright notice are also reproduced verbatim as part
of this restricted Reprint License, along with any embedded links within its
main text, and not doing so may be subject to copyright license
violation infringement claims pursuant to remedies noted at
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html. All figures, images,
quotations and excerpts, are used without permission based on
non-profit "fair-use" for personal education and research
use only in the greater public interest, documenting crimes
against humanity, deconstructing current affairs, and scholarly
commentary. The usage by Project Humanbeingsfirst of all external
material is minimally consistent with the understanding of "fair
use" laws at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html.
Project Humanbeingsfirst does not endorse any external website or organization it links to or references, nor those that may link to it or reprint its works.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of US Copyright Laws, you
are provided the material from Project Humanbeingsfirst upon your
request, and taking any action that delivers you any of its documents
in any form is considered making a specific request to receive the
documents for your own personal educational and/or research use. You
are directly responsible for seeking the requisite permissions from
other copyright holders for any use beyond “fair use”.